The Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model is a quantifiable exercise helping product teams to identify features that customers value most.
The Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model endeavours to answer some basic questions around product development:
Which product feature will get customers excitedly telling their friends about it?
Which will cause them to rush to upgrade their model?
Which feature(s) will make the customer so happy that they ignore less desirable aspects of the product?
Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model
Key Elements
Analysis
Implications
Applications
Examples
Definition
The Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model is a collaborative and interactive method for prioritizing features or enhancements based on stakeholders’ preferences and willingness to invest resources. It involves participants “buying” features with limited resources (e.g., budget points) to determine priority.
Analyzing this model entails selecting a set of features or enhancements to prioritize and defining the available resources (e.g., budget points or tokens) that participants can use to “buy” these features. Participants then allocate their resources to the features they consider most valuable, reflecting their priorities.
The Buy-a-Feature model helps identify which features or enhancements have the highest perceived value among stakeholders. It encourages engagement and consensus-building among participants. The prioritization results indicate the features that should be developed or implemented first based on collective preferences.
This model is particularly useful in product development, software development, or project prioritization, where resources are limited, and stakeholders have diverse preferences. It can be applied to prioritize product features, project tasks, or strategic initiatives.
– Prioritizing new product features for a software application based on customer preferences and available development resources. – Determining the order in which infrastructure enhancements will be implemented in a construction project based on stakeholder priorities. – Ranking marketing campaign ideas for a limited budget by allowing team members to “buy” the most promising strategies. – Allocating research and development investments among potential innovation projects to maximize value creation.
Participant Involvement
In this model, participants, often representing different stakeholder groups (e.g., customers, team members, executives), actively engage in the prioritization process. Each participant is provided with a set of resources (e.g., budget points) to allocate to the features they deem most important.
Analyzing participant involvement involves selecting the right stakeholders to participate, defining the allocation rules (e.g., how many points each participant receives), and facilitating the prioritization session. Effective facilitation ensures that participants express their preferences and engage in discussions to reach consensus.
Participant involvement is crucial for the success of the Buy-a-Feature model. It fosters transparency, collective decision-making, and alignment among stakeholders. Participants’ choices reflect their priorities, allowing organizations to make informed decisions that resonate with their key audiences.
The Buy-a-Feature model is ideal when multiple stakeholders influence or benefit from the prioritization outcome. It encourages collaboration and ensures that features or initiatives align with the needs and preferences of the target audience. Facilitation skills are essential for guiding participants effectively.
– Involving customers in the prioritization of product features to ensure that development efforts align with market demand. – Engaging cross-functional teams in project prioritization to consider the perspectives of different departments and ensure alignment with strategic goals. – Facilitating executive workshops to allocate budget points among competing strategic initiatives, ensuring that investments align with organizational priorities. – Enabling citizens to participate in local government budget allocation decisions by “buying” municipal projects based on community preferences.
Resource Allocation
Resource allocation is a key aspect of the Buy-a-Feature model. It involves defining the total pool of resources available (e.g., budget points) and determining the rules for distribution among participants. The allocation process simulates a competitive marketplace where participants “spend” their resources on features.
Analyzing resource allocation includes setting clear rules for resource distribution, such as the number of points each participant receives, and determining how participants can spend their resources (e.g., single or multiple allocations). Effective resource allocation ensures fairness and reflects the value participants assign to features.
Resource allocation decisions have a direct impact on the prioritization results. Allocating more resources to a feature indicates higher priority. Careful consideration of resource distribution rules is essential to create a balanced and competitive environment that mirrors stakeholders’ preferences.
Resource allocation is a central aspect of the model and is applicable in scenarios where organizations must make choices with constrained resources. It is particularly useful for projects, product development, or initiatives with limited budgets or resources. The model encourages participants to make trade-offs and maximize the value of their investments.
– Allocating budget points to prioritize software development tasks based on their perceived business value and technical complexity. – Distributing innovation funding among research projects to support initiatives aligned with organizational goals. – Allowing project teams to allocate project budget points to prioritize and execute features in agile development. – Engaging citizens in participatory budgeting processes to allocate public funds to community projects, reflecting community preferences.
Prioritization Results
The Buy-a-Feature model generates prioritization results that indicate the order in which features or enhancements should be addressed. Features that receive more resources (e.g., higher budget points) are considered higher-priority items. The results reflect collective stakeholder preferences and resource constraints.
Analyzing prioritization results involves aggregating participants’ resource allocations and determining the rank or priority order of features based on the accumulated resources. The results provide a clear understanding of which features are most valuable to stakeholders and should be addressed first.
The prioritization results guide decision-making and resource allocation. Features with higher resource allocations are typically implemented or developed sooner, aligning with stakeholder priorities. The model’s transparency ensures that prioritization decisions are based on data and collective preferences.
Prioritization results inform project planning, product development, or resource allocation decisions. Organizations use these results to create roadmaps, allocate development teams, or determine the order of project tasks. The results align development efforts with stakeholder expectations and market demands.
– Generating a ranked list of new product features to guide development efforts and allocate resources effectively. – Creating a project backlog based on feature prioritization results to ensure that the most critical tasks are addressed first in agile project management. – Identifying strategic initiatives to pursue based on the prioritization of available investments, ensuring that resources are allocated to the most impactful projects. – Developing a roadmap for marketing campaigns by prioritizing strategies that received the highest budget allocations from the team.
Facilitation
Effective facilitation is essential for the success of the Buy-a-Feature model. Facilitators guide participants through the process, explain the rules, monitor resource allocation, encourage discussions, and ensure that the prioritization session runs smoothly. Skilled facilitation fosters engagement and consensus.
Analyzing facilitation involves selecting experienced facilitators who understand the model and can create a collaborative environment. Facilitators must be well-prepared to explain the rules, manage time effectively, and encourage participants to share their perspectives. They play a crucial role in ensuring that the prioritization process is fair and unbiased.
Facilitation impacts the quality of the prioritization results. Skilled facilitators encourage participants to articulate their preferences, engage in discussions, and consider trade-offs. Effective facilitation ensures that the process is inclusive, transparent, and aligns with the organization’s objectives.
Facilitation skills are essential in scenarios where stakeholder engagement and consensus-building are critical. Organizations often rely on experienced facilitators or trained facilitation teams to guide Buy-a-Feature sessions. Facilitators create a safe and structured environment for participants to express their priorities.
– Employing a certified facilitator to lead a Buy-a-Feature session with cross-functional teams to prioritize project tasks and align on development priorities. – Training internal facilitators to conduct Buy-a-Feature workshops with customer focus groups, ensuring that product features align with user preferences. – Engaging an external facilitator to lead executive workshops for allocating budget points among strategic initiatives, ensuring impartiality and expertise in the process. – Collaborating with a professional facilitation team to organize a public Buy-a-Feature event for citizens to allocate funds to community projects fairly and transparently.
Understanding the Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model
Choosing the appropriate mix of features can make or break a company, but too many product teams move ahead with product development without first involving the most important group of people: customers.
The Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model strengthens this decision making process by incorporating valuable customer input.
The model is named after the process of gathering this input, where customers are encouraged to “buy” high-priority features.
Implementing the Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model
There are several ways to implement the Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model.
Regardless of which adaptation the business chooses, it’s important to conduct the exercise in person.
This facilitates deeper discussion about results which gives decision makers better insight into what customers want.
Here is how the product team may conduct a Buy-A-Feature exercise:
Make a list of features for prioritization, and assign “prices” to each
Price should be relative to the cost, risk, or complexity of developing that feature.
Before proceeding to the next step, every participant should be aware of the benefits of each option.
Then, hand out play money (jelly beans, Monopoly money, etc.) to each of the participants and send them shopping for their favourite features
Some practitioners suggest selling one or more items at a price that no single customer can afford.
This encourages customers to work together to purchase high-priority features.
Observe and learn
As customers negotiate, collaborate, and discuss certain features, the product team must observe intently.
Product team members are also encouraged to join the discussion, particularly if certain customers have reached an impasse on a particular feature.
Review the purchases
Once every participant has spent all of their money, discuss the results in a group. How did they arrive at their decisions?
Why was one item chosen over another? Why did two participants pool their money to buy a lower priority feature?
In collecting insights, product teams should be as exhaustive as possible.
Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model best practices
To increase the efficacy of this exercise, consider these best practices:
Make the end users the primary participants
Although the Buy-a-Feature can be used with important stakeholders, the results are more significant if the end users are the primary participants.
If certain product features have similar prices, then group them together
Otherwise, consider the pricing strategy carefully.
For example, a participant choosing between two products with a $10 difference in price is more likely to make a subjective decision that gives no insight into the feature itself.
Encourage participants to share their ideas by suggesting features or ideas not used in the exercise
For best results, ask them how they would value each feature and why.
Drawbacks of the Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model
Potential for Misalignment with Strategic Goals:
Focus on Popularity Over Strategy: The model may favor features that are popular among participants but not necessarily aligned with the organization’s strategic objectives or long-term vision.
Risk of Short-Term Focus: There’s a potential to prioritize features that offer immediate gratification over those that provide long-term value.
Limited Stakeholder Perspectives:
Participant Bias: If the participant group is not representative of the actual user base or key stakeholders, the prioritization might not reflect the needs and preferences of the broader audience.
Influence of Dominant Participants: Strong personalities or higher-ranking individuals in the session can disproportionately influence the outcome, skewing results.
Simplification of Complex Decisions:
Over-Simplification of Prioritization: The method simplifies complex product decisions into a monetary value-based game, which might not account for the nuanced aspects of product development like technical feasibility or market trends.
Not Suitable for All Features: Some features or requirements may be too complex or abstract to be effectively evaluated through this method.
Resource and Time Intensive:
Preparation and Execution Time: Setting up and executing the Buy-a-Feature exercise can be time-consuming, requiring careful planning and resources.
Need for Facilitation: Effective facilitation is crucial, and without it, the exercise might not yield useful results.
When to Use the Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model
Ideal Scenarios:
Early-Stage Product Development: Useful for gauging initial user or stakeholder interest in various features during the early stages of product development.
Market Research: Can serve as a market research tool to understand customer preferences and willingness to pay for certain features.
Strategic Application:
Engaging Stakeholders: Effective for actively engaging customers or stakeholders in the prioritization process, fostering a sense of ownership and buy-in.
Diverse Input Collection: Useful when diverse input is needed to ensure a wide range of perspectives are considered in the decision-making process.
How to Use the Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model
Implementing the Process:
List Features: Compile a comprehensive list of potential features or enhancements.
Assign Costs: Assign a hypothetical cost to each feature, reflecting its value or development complexity.
Allocate Budget: Provide participants with a fixed amount of virtual currency to spend on features.
Prioritize Through Purchase: Participants ‘buy’ features they deem most valuable or desirable within their budget constraints.
Analyze Results: Analyze the purchasing choices to determine which features are prioritized by participants.
Best Practices:
Diverse Participant Selection: Ensure a diverse group of participants to capture a broad range of perspectives.
Clear Instructions: Provide clear instructions and context to participants to facilitate informed decision-making.
Facilitator Guidance: Utilize skilled facilitators to guide the process and ensure productive discussions.
What to Expect from Implementing the Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model
Enhanced Stakeholder Engagement:
Increased Engagement and Insight: Engages stakeholders in a hands-on, interactive way, providing valuable insights into their preferences and priorities.
Fosters Collaboration and Discussion: Encourages discussion and debate among participants, often leading to a deeper understanding of their needs and motivations.
Organizational Impact:
Informed Feature Prioritization: Can help in making more informed decisions about which features to develop based on stakeholder input.
User-Centric Development: Supports a user-centric approach to product development, focusing on features that offer real value to users.
Potential Challenges:
Interpreting Results: Careful interpretation of the results is needed to ensure that prioritization aligns with business goals and market realities.
Balancing Popularity and Feasibility: There might be a need to balance popular features with what is technically and financially feasible for the organization.
Key takeaways
The Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model is a product prioritization technique which asks customers to “buy” features they value the most.
The Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model is performed in four simple steps. The Buy-a-Feature exercise can be performed online, but the best results are seen by conducting it in person.
The Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model is most effective when there is collaboration and interaction between product team members and participants. Certain aspects of the Buy-a-Feature exercise can be gamed to encourage this collaboration.
Key Highlights
Understanding Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model:
The Buy-a-Feature model helps product teams identify high-value features by involving customers.
It answers questions like which features excite customers, encourage upgrades, and enhance overall product satisfaction.
Importance of Customer Input:
Successful product development hinges on the right mix of features.
The Buy-a-Feature model includes customers’ valuable input through a process where they “buy” high-priority features.
Implementing the Buy-a-Feature Model:
List features with relative “prices” based on cost, risk, or complexity.
Participants are given play money to “buy” their favorite features.
Observing participants’ choices and discussions helps the product team gather insights.
Review the results and discuss why certain choices were made.
Best Practices for Buy-a-Feature:
Involve end users as primary participants for more meaningful results.
Group features with similar prices to encourage meaningful choices.
Encourage participants to share additional feature ideas and their valuation.
Key Takeaways:
Buy-a-Feature Prioritization Model involves customers “buying” features they value most.
Conducted in four steps, it’s more effective in person, fostering collaboration.
Collaboration and interaction between team members and participants enhance the process.
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Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
